Chinese Pastimes
SOLD April 2010 |
Vintage albumen print by an unidentified Chinese studio circa 1890, depicting eight Chinese men engaged in a variety of traditional pastimes. These appear to include drinking, a game which may be Go, scroll painting, music and, at extreme left, one boy adjusting a knob atop another boy's head. Descending from the family of Charles Goddard Weld. Print size 8.25 x 10.25 inches (21x26 cm).
Condition: Print is unmounted, in very good to excellent condition, may have some wrinkling, small losses at edges, other minor defects. Tones in range of 7-9 out of 10.
This photograph comes from a group of travel albums descending from the family of Charles Goddard Weld (1857-1911) and believed to be Weld's personal albums, as several bear his bookplate. Weld, a Boston-area physician, traveled to the East at the end of the 19th century and had important connections to Asian art as well as to the photographer Edward Curtis. He donated a collection of over 100 original Curtis images to the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, Massachusetts and an important collection of Asian art to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. These photographs were likely gathered by Weld during his travels in the East.
Below: Book plate from one of Weld's travel albums:
